August 14, 2014

Kurdistan Is a 'Success Story'? Not So Fast

Kurdistan is booming on the promise of oil wealth, and their security -- maintained by the peshmerga -- has enticed investors to the region. But progress has come alongside reports of rampant corruption, a widening gap between the rich and poor, and increasingly authoritarian tendencies in a government still dominated by family names. Disenfranchised Kurds find little hope of influencing the authorities or benefiting from the oil wealth. Perhaps nothing in Kurdistan illustrates its internal fissures more than the peshmerga themselves.

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